Theora
Cursor for Product Managers
Overview
Theora is an AI workspace that turns messy customer feedback into clear product decisions. Instead of a mess of documents, it treats product discovery as a system to help teams think and plan more effectively.
I acted as both PM and Designer to build a tool that feels as fast as a code editor (like Cursor) but is built specifically for product management. The goal was to turn customer "noise" into high-confidence plans.
The Core Bet
The problem isn't that we don't have enough data. The problem is that we don't have a system to make sense of it.
The biggest time-waster for product managers is searching for the "Why" behind a feature. I bet that if we used AI to organize and summarize customer evidence, we could drastically reduce the effort it takes to make good product decisions.
The Opportunity
- •Pull scattered feedback from Slack, Email, and CRMs into one place.
- •Show a clear path from customer problems to final feature specs.
- •Use AI to spot risks and unproven ideas before you start building.
- •Bridge the gap between product ideas and engineering tasks.
PM vs Designer
This project was about the balance between Data vs. Clarity. As a PM, I wanted every data point visible; as a designer, I wanted a clean interface that didn't feel overwhelming.
The PM View
Needs high-density data, complex filters, and a way to see all customer evidence at once.
The Designer View
Needs white space, clear focus, and an interface that hides complexity until it is needed.
The solution wasn't to pick one side. It was to build a system that grows in complexity only when the user needs it.
Final Concept
Theora is built around five core views that follow the lifecycle of a product feature. Each screen helps move teams from a messy problem to a clear, validated solution.
1. Home: Opportunity View
A mission control for prioritizing product "bets." AI confidence scores help the team shift focus from "What can we build?" to "What is actually worth building?"
- •Turns customer signals into a prioritized list of ideas.
- •Automatically flags ideas that lack enough customer evidence.
- •Speeds up the move from raw feedback to clear project scoping.
2. Analytics: Discovery Health
Instead of just tracking how many features are built, Theora tracks Time to Validation. It shows where the planning process is stuck and which ideas need more research.
- •Tracks the health of the discovery pipeline for every squad.
- •Shows exactly which features are missing customer proof.
- •Speeds up decision-making by using data to settle arguments.
3. Search: Smart Finder
A smart search engine that understands what you are looking for. It finds customer quotes, past research, and old product docs so teams never have to do the same work twice.
- •Searches across Slack, research interviews, and Notion docs.
- •Automatically groups related insights to keep data organized.
- •⌘K palette to jump between context while you write.
4. Editor: Stakeholder View
A clean view for sharing plans with the rest of the team. It simplifies complex research into a clear story of Product Intent so everyone knows why a feature is being built.
- •AI summaries that make it easy for stakeholders to catch up.
- •Dependency maps to show how one feature affects another.
- •Provides a single source of truth for the final product plan.
5. Editor: Research Sidekick
The main workspace where product plans are written. While the PM drafts, the AI suggests customer evidence and flags unproven guesses, turning a static document into an active decision tool.
- •Real-time AI suggestions that challenge one-sided thinking.
- •Links every requirement directly to a customer quote.
- •Generates engineering tickets automatically once validated.
Reflection
Building Theora showed me that the most powerful tools are the ones that simplify hard problems. The challenge wasn't just designing screens, but deciding how AI should help without taking over the human decision-making process.
In the future, I would focus more on how teams work together in real-time. Product planning is a team sport, and a tool like Theora is most valuable when it helps teams have better conversations.